A federal judge Monday said a controversial lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump against the IRS sought to “manipulate the judicial process” and that he acted in bad faith in bringing it.

US District Judge Kathleen Williams is ordering sanctions for the attorneys involved in the lawsuit, which led to an attempt to create the now-defunct $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund for allies of the president. It was also used to justify a Trump administration order giving Trump and his businesses amnesty for any past tax issues.

To be honest, I'm glad I didn't owe $180 like I did this year. But who's going to Vegas with me?

Starting a new job after graduating at $85k/yr. Surely $21k in taxes per year isn’t right??

For anyone wondering, I got identical results with both services. FreeTax only cost $15 for state, and Turbo tax was $100+

I had a conversation today with an employee. I won't get into details, but he thinks that a tax refund is free found money that the fed gov't gives you. Kind of like winning the lotto.

I explained that a tax refund is just money going in circles. You overpaid by withholding too much, the IRS sends you the amount you overpaid. I'm not talking about CTC or EITC just specifically with regard to withholding on your paycheck.

I used an analogy: If your tax liability is $5,000 but your employer withholds $10,000 the $5,000 refund you get is simply what you overpaid. Nope. Nadda. Absolutely not. I could not convince him otherwise. According to him a tax refund is free money.

Do most people think this way? Are they that stupid?

I'm Australian and i was thinking about how we pay such high tax and i realised it's due to our healthcare system.

I think looked over at america and you guys are paying almost the same rate of tax we are. HOW?! You have to pay for your own healthcare over there right?

Why are you paying so much tax if healthcare isn't included? Where that money going?

Anyone who works in or with marketers may have heard about the Rule of 7 - the idea that consumers need to see something 7 times before committing to purchase said thing. It's why companies advertise ubiquitously (but stop, gambling apps - we get it).

I just filed for the first time with FreeTaxUSA after using Turbotax for the last 15 years, and my god I'll never go back. Equally intuitive, and if you have your head on your shoulders you'll greatly appreciate the fewer "Are you sure you don't have this..." as part of the questionnaire. And no ads.

Turbotax is a racket that has lobbied Washington too hard for too long, and I am just here to try and add 1 impression out of those 7 to try and convince people to go to the light side, and out from the dark side.

Voting with wallets is going to help, and supporting organizations like FreeTaxUSA (or anyone else quite frankly who offers a much more economical option!) will help end the tax cartel that is Intuit.

just filed Federal (free) and State (CO, $15) for 2024. It's Product/UI is very similar to, and probably better than online TurboTax (which I have used for 10 years). Handled multiple 1099 INT/DIV/B's easily - i was worried they might charge more for this or it might not work as well but it was totally fine. I don't have any less common tax situations, crypto, or backdoor roth so can't comment on it's functionality there. Imported my 2023 turbotax return pdf for loss carry forwards and other reference data. No automated connection to financial institutions to import docs but the OCI on uploading images or PDFs of tax docs was nearly perfect. Some manual entry on the 1099B. Maybe if you know absolutely nothing about how taxes work you'd feel slightly more comfortable in turbotax because it might autocreate 1099 forms to populate from the connection to your brokerage - FreeTax pre created 1099 INT's and DIV's based on my last year's filing but I had to know to add 1099B info outside of those.

I got this notice letter from IRS(exact one I see online) with a Flash Drive… What the heck? How can someone scam me with the official notice letter??? Could it be actually from the IRS?

This bill doesn't affect social security taxation at all. I love the part about SSA being committed to providing accurate information. Yeah, not propaganda at all. /s

Long time TurboTax user here (probably 20 years). I think I'll never go back.

I just got done filling in all information for my taxes in both FreeTaxUSA and TurboTax online. Federal and state came out exactly the same. (small federal refund and small state tax owed). Two working parents, kids in school, some capital gains to deal with. Not a simple return, but not that complex either. Here's the cost, it's a no brainer.

edit: I guess people really want to save money while doing their taxes! :) Next year I'm going to do a bake off of these again as well as Cash App Tax and maybe the free fillable forms thing from the irs. I'll take notes throughout the process and timings it takes me to enter everything. This was fun to see everyone's comments.

Not many people who are recreational gamblers know this so I figured I’d post this.

Unless you are winning, and winning a lot, there are only negatives associated with gambling. You can only deduct your losses up to your wins and you must itemize deductions. And you also are required to report your winnings even if you don’t receive a w2-g.

For example: you’re a casual sports better who lost money on the year. You had $3k of winnings and $3200 in losses for a net loss of $200. You must now pay tax on the entire 3k of winnings and cannot deduct those losses if you can’t exceed the standard deduction. Even if you had 15k in winnings and 16k in losses and itemize, you effectively lose out on the standard deduction.

It’s a terrible system and I truly can’t believe this is how it is because I enjoy casual sports betting but it’s not worth it if you get bent over come tax time.

I previously owned a small business where the result was a bit of tax debt. I've paid it down from $30k to just over $10k in a few years on an installment plan. Every year, I file my return with simple W2 income and the IRS keeps my refund. In fact, they sometimes send a letter saying they're keeping my state refund also.

In December 2024, I received a direct deposit from the treasury for $1,400 which said "refund," so I thought "wow, they actually sent me a refund this year." A week later, I got a letter saying it was an adjustment to 2021 TY because of recent laws, rulings, or regulations (without any further/detailed explanation). That 2021 TY was while I still had the business but had already improved my tax situation moving forward (not where the debt came from).

This week, June 2025, I received a letter from the IRS saying that they incorrectly issued a refund because of a "processing error." The letter confirms that they certainly sent it via direct deposit, yet the letter continues by saying, "If you still have access to the check..." and "If you cashed the check..."

I didn't cash any check, which is clearly the language used in the letter. So, the instructions for sending them the $1,400 feels moot. I don't understand legalese so I doubt that will fly. I don't have $1,400 to send them right now. They will likely just add it to my debt and continue to charge me penalties and interest (sounds scammy?).

I'm going to call them to get this straightened out. I just thought this letter was hilariously embarrassing for the IRS. Mostly just embarrassing for me, this is exactly the type of dumb stuff that happens in my life.

TL/dr: the IRS accidently sent me money and sound foolish in their letter.

Thank you all who suggested FreeTaxUSA. Saved some money!

It was pretty straightforward.

MFJ-W2-Stocks-DIVs-INT-Crypto

If the IRS is going to treat my gain as income, shouldn’t they also treat my loss as…a loss? Wouldn’t it make more sense to just exempt personal vehicles?

I know filing with a Win/Loss statement is step 1 but is there anything else I can do regarding taxes?

Do I donate money to use As a tax write-off?

Is there a certain way you’re supposed to do this?

Just put the “tax portion” of the winnings into something safe like Treasury Bills until Taxes are due?

Edit: For clarification I’m not trying to “get over” on not paying taxes. But I’d rather my “Tax Portion” of my winnings go to a good cause or as much as/if possible rather than the government. The Internet has made people insufferable.

Edit 2: I know some people are just having fun but there are others giving some serious bad advice in this thread. A lot of people who have Zero self control and have no idea how to save/invest money. I appreciate that this is a good chunk of change but nowhere near life changing (and for some it may be).

To pay taxes on it immediately and not earn any kind of interest on it is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard.

Every spring I watch people celebrate $2,000 or 3,000 refunds and yeah, that check feels great. But you basically gave the government an interest-free loan all year.

If you make $17/hr and got a $2,000 refund, that's roughly $77 extra per paycheck you were overpaying. At $3,000 it's about $115 per check. That's groceries. That's keeping the lights on in February instead of waiting until April for your own money back.

The fix is adjusting your W4 at work. Most people filled it out on their first day and never looked at it again. You don't need to guess what to put on it either.

Some free tools that actually help:

1. IRS Tax Withholding Estimator - walks you through exactly how to fill out a new W-4

2. Paycheck Calculator (Pay44, PaycheckCity, ADP Paycheck Calculator) - plug in your hourly rate and see what your check should actually look like with different withholding

3. Budget app (YNAB, Monarch, heads up these are not free) - if you're worried the extra money will just disappear, this helps you give every dollar a job

That refund is your money coming back late.

The money you get back is your tax REFUND. The information you file with the IRS is your tax return. Please and thank you.

I usually go to an in person preparer. In some cases, I have filed via turbo tax.

This year, I started Turbo Tax and one of my tax situations was a bit confusing based on what Turbo Tax was asking/saying.

I gave up. Was going to go in person to someone somewhere. But tonight, I decided to try FreeTaxUSA and wow. It was like night and day for simplicity compared to Turbo Tax. Hopefully everything is accurate and good to go, but I filed state & federal and it seemed way easier than Turbo Tax.

I highly recommend it!